THE SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 



when we remember that the various processes 

 which we habitually group together under the 

 name of " reasoning " are all of them acts of 

 classification. " The savage, having by experi- 

 ence discovered a relation between a certain ob- 

 ject and a certain act, infers that the like rela- 

 tion will be found in future cases." . . . When 

 in consequence of some of the properties of a 

 body, we attribute to it all those properties in 

 virtue of which it is referred to a particular 

 class, the act is an act of inference, " The form- 

 ing of a generalization is the putting together in 

 one class all those cases which present like re- 

 lations ; while the drawing a deduction is essen- 

 tially the perception that a particular case belongs 

 to a certain class of cases previously generalized. 

 So that, as classification is a grouping together 

 of like things^ reasoning is a grouping together 

 of like relations among things. And while the 

 perfection gradually achieved in classification 

 consists in the formation of groups of objects 

 which are completely aUke, the perfection grad- 

 ually achieved in reasoning consists in the for- 

 mation of groups o{ cases which are completely 

 alike." ^ 



Since knowledge consists in classifying, it 

 follows conversely that ignorance consists in 

 inability to classify — in the failure to group 



^ Spencer's Essays, ist series, p. 189. [Library Edition,, 

 vol. ii. p. 33.] 



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